Template - Date: Development Tours 9-10

Mike van Duivenbode claimed his maiden title and Luke Humphries picked up his third PDC Unicorn Development Tour title of 2017 in Germany on Saturday.

The pair each enjoyed success at Halle 39 in Hildesheim, where a double header of £10,000 tournaments were played on the first of two days of action. Humphries continued his excellent progress in 2017 with a dominant performance throughout Development Tour Event Nine, which culminated in a 5-1 win over Dimitri Van Den Bergh.

22-year-old Humphries reached the last 16 without dropping a leg in wins against Christian Wagner, Samuel Kiessling and Ben Chance. There, he saw off Brian Raman 4-2 before defeating Dan Read 5-2 in the quarter-finals to set up a last four clash with Mike De Decker, which he won 5-2.

That was as close as anyone got to Humphries, who defeated eight-time Development Tour winner Van Den Bergh comfortably in the decider – as he followed up his maiden Challenge Tour triumph earlier this month with a fourth tournament victory of the year.

Belgian ace Van Den Bergh had beaten Van Duivenbode, Reece Colley, Ryan Hoggarth, Max Hopp, Berry Van Peer and Justin Van Tergouw to reach the final – but the 22-year-old was unable to add to the two titles he has already picked up so far in 2017.

Van Duivenbode bounced back from his first round defeat in the day’s first event to take the £2,000 first prize in the second, as he sealed a first Development Tour victory in style with a 5-0 final win against Adam Hunt.

The 18-year-old Dutchman began his route to glory in the tenth event of the year with a 4-0 success over Christoph Wittmis. He then defeated Nico Blum, Andy Alker, Jimmy Hendriks and Nico Kurz to reach the quarter-finals for the first time.

Van Duivenbode enjoyed a 5-2 success against Colley before edging out Kenny Neyens 5-4 to progress to the decider. There he completed a fantastic whitewash win against Hunt, who has won six titles combined between the PDC’s Development and Challenge Tours.

23-year-old Hunt, who had also lost out in round one of the earlier event, defeated Jack Dickinson, Arron Fairweather, Brandon Walsh, Geert Nentjes, Kurt Parry, Dawson Murschell and Van Tergouw in reaching the final.

17-year-old Dutch prospect Van Tergouw enjoyed a productive day, reaching the semi-finals in each of the two events. Sunday will see Event 11 and Event 12 take place, with play in Event 11 commencing at 10.30am local time.